Meat and Livestock Australia’s newest ad has caused outrage worldwide after its depiction of Lord Ganesha, a revered Hindu deity.Source:Supplied

AFTER generating a huge amount of debate and controversy, India’s own government has called for Australia’s new lamb ad to be trashed, labelling it “offensive”.

The ad, titled “You Never Lamb Alone”, launched by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) on September 4, outraged thousands of Hindus after it featured Lord Ganesha, a revered Hindu deity, “toasting lamb” as “the meat we can all eat”.

Only, Lord Ganesha is a vegetarian.

Australia’s Hindu community called for action and the Indian government has since lodged an official diplomatic complaint.

In a press release on Friday, the High Commission of India said it had made a “démarche” to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Communication and Arts and the Department of Agriculture over the “insensitive” ad.

The statement said the way Lord Ganesha was used for the ad was considered by the Indian community to be “offensive and hurting their religious sentiments”.

“The Consulate General of India in Sydney has taken up the matter directly with Meat

and Livestock Australia and urged them to withdraw the advertisement,” it added.

While the ad’s original intention was to promote unity and inclusivity through enjoying lamb, it seems to have done the exact opposite with Hindus all over the world threatening to boycott Australia’s multi-billion dollar meat industry over the ad.

“With ads like this playing with the sentiments of communities worldwide resulting in boycotts, how long Australia would keep its position as one of the largest exporters of red meat,” he said.

Mr Zed also called for MLA Board Chair Dr. Michele Allan and Managing Director Richard Norton to resign over the ad and for “using cheap tactics to attract attention instead of seriously attempting to prevent consumers from reducing their lamb consumption”.

The simple fact it portrayed opposing divinities and prophets — such as Jesus, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Thor and Zeus — was bound to provoke controversy. Even Mohammed gets a mention.

But clearly, when the ad declared it wouldn’t “get into religion at the table”, it already had.

The ad featured everyone from Zeus to Buddha. Picture: Meat and Livestock AustraliaSource:Supplied

While the outrage over MLA’s latest ad has no doubt stirred the most amount of controversy, it definitely isn’t the first time the association has come under fire for its polarising commercials.

Australia’s Advertising Standards Bureau received over 50 complaints in less than a day after an MLA 2016 ad appeared to promote violence towards vegans.

In a statement to news.com.au, a spokesperson for MLA said:

“For a number of years, our “You Never Lamb Alone” campaigns have promoted the value of unity and inclusivity. This latest campaign instalment is no different.

“The campaign features gods, prophets and deities from across a wide range of religions alongside atheism, in a clearly fantastic nature, with the intent of being as inclusive as possible. To achieve this we undertook extensive research and consultation. To this end, those religions that don’t typically eat red meat are not shown consuming Lamb, but they are still invited to the table.

“Our intent is never to offend, but by acknowledging that lamb is a meat consumed by a wide variety of cultures, capture how such a gathering might look if one left their differing views at the door and came to the table with open arms, and minds.

“MLA advertisements have a history of being irreverent and jovial but always with the intent of adhering to the Advertising Standards Code.

“We are aware that a number of community groups have raised concerns and are in the process of meeting with and responding to these to better understand their concerns and to reiterate our positive intent behind the concept.”